The long answer is here; the short answer is that
this site begins to fill a need for more information on coin counting costs,
alternatives and strategies.

How was the information assembled?

Primarily, the information was gathered by searching the Internet for organization
websites which disclose the availability and costs of coin counting services
and/or machines. Information will continue to be added to the site based on
additional Internet searches, direct organization contacts, and YOU.

On your state-specific coin counting pages, there are brackets [] in places,
I see the word "YES" often and the data varies in its presentation;
why is this and what does it all mean?

The Coin Counting Home Page Legend is as follows:New - indicates the start of a new organization which counts coins, may
contain multiple branches[] - Brackets indicate uncertain information, editorial comments, and
data not collected from official institutional documents.n/c - No charge for coin counting (may or may not include non-account
holders)Customers - Generally, we interpreted customer to mean account holder.
May mean different things to different banks, thrifts, and credit unions.

The variability of data has to do with the initial, rather cavalier system
of copying, retyping, and/or otherwise transferring data from the websites of
organizations which count coins. This may or may not continue to be the case,
but we will all have to live with it for now.

How do I know you aren't lying?

You got us. We are transvestite
space aliens bent on putting up bogus websites designed to waste your time,
in order to lure the
Watchdog Tock out of hiding so we can capture him for use on our time dysfunctional
home planet.

No, really, where does your information come from?

Specifically, we used a number of search engines to search on combinations
of words which yielded banks, credit unions and other organizations which
count coins. After recording the website address and some basic information
on fees and hours (if available), minimally cleaning up the data, it is posted
to this web site. Some data on the website comes from now unavailable web pages
and are only cached in the Google web server. Coin counting offered by these
organizations may or may not continue to be valid.

How do I use your site, if there is just a big list of cheap and free coin
counting sites for each state?

There are a few techniques you can use to make your searching more effective.
First, if you find a page hasn't changed recently, you should first refresh
the page clicking the "Refresh" button on your browser, hitting F5
in IE (or whatever it is in Netscape, Opera, etc.), or going to the menu ->
View -> Refresh. Once you have done that, remember you can use the "Find"
function, CNTRL-F in many browsers, the Apple key and F on Apple computers,
or under menu --> Edit --> Find. Search for zip codes (although not all
banks have a zip listed), town names, or bank names to find something in your
area. Otherwise, yes, you just have to scroll down the page or print and look
through the list. If you still haven't found a useful bank or credit union,
you should consider calling some in your area. Banking has begun to change over
the past few years and service is again considered a way to get, retain, and
earn more from banking activities. There is a chance your bank has purchased
or will be purchasing a teller run or even public self-service, coin counting
machine in the near future.

How do I know if I can trust the information on this website?

Do not use any of the information on this website, or ANY website, without
first checking on the validity of the information. In the case of this website
specifically, call ahead to the institution you would have count your coins
and see if their policy matches what is listed here. The data on this site was
taken DIRECTLY from the websites and help desks of institutions which claim
to count coins. If the two data sources do not match, it is most probably because
the organizations posted inaccurate data, the data is now out of date, or they
are intentionally misleading users of their websites. There is a small chance
that the data was posted here incorrectly, misinterpreted by us, or poorly communicated
by us. Finally, when contacting instututions, the problems of teller ignorance,
worker unwillingness, and policy murkiness can all have the same result as bad
data. What are these problems? By way of short example, even though corporate
policy as filed with state regulators is to count account holder's coins free
and non account holder's coins for 5% at a particular bank, your counting request
may be refused by company staff or management. In these cases, your best bet
may be to go to another organization which will count your money for the same
or lower price. You may also choose to make your case with evidence gathered
from their website, your state banking regulators, and staff on duty at a different
time than when you had your problem. Whatever the source of problematic information,
send us corrections and we will edit the site as
soon as possible.

Should I -- wrap, unwrap, count -- my coins before I bring them to the bank?

It depends. As in the answer above, we suggest calling ahead to verify an organization's
coin counting capabilities. This is a good time to ask if any special preparation
needs to be done. Some organizations still count coins by hand (fewer and fewer)
so you may have to actually drop off your coins and pick up your receipt the
next day. With staffing generally tighter at financial institutions than it
used to be, it is best not to go during Thursday afternoon's check cashing rush,
for example, even for self-service machines (they fill up quickly these days
with all the coin counting going on, requiring staff to do coin bag changing).
To make your coin counting faster, possibly more accurate, safer to earrings
which may have fallen into your coins, and available next time you want to count
coins, it is a good idea to bring only clean coins with no foreign, badly damaged
or obsolete coins or other objects mixed in with them. This also allows you
to estimate how much money you have based on your coin mix.

How do I know if my coins are being counted accurately?

Caution should rule the day NO MATTER WHERE you count your coins. Even organizations
which have every intention of being honest may occasionally have problems with
their procedures, equipment or staff. Some states, but not all, regulate retail
measurement equipment involving monetary transactions. We suggest that you should,
if you plan on counting large numbers of coins often, test their equipment and/or
staff with a smaller quantity of coins you have pre-counted.

We were so excited about getting this site up, we just put up what we had,
as is. Honestly, we don't know if we will update to zip code searches or add
some form of search tool to our pages.

It would be great if someone could create a site like this for this or that
consumer problem, can you do that?

We would love to do this again, we just need to know
about the problem and we will see if we can come up with a solution. Let us
know about it from our email page and we will get
back to you right away.

Can I tell people about this site?

Should you tell someone abuot this site?? Of course! Tell everyone! Go to every
blog, guestbook, debit counseling organization, and friend you have on the Internet
and off and trumpet the wonders of this site. The more people who use the site,
the more helpful it will become, the more content it will have, the more cheap
and free coin counting people can do. Just say no to expensive coin counting
and help others say the same thing as well.